I don't hate the costume--it fits for the kind of story they're telling, and from what I've heard from JMS talking about this storyline, it seems like the purpose of this story is to have Wonder Woman find out what happened, and change the timeline back, which will probably mean a mix of the two.

Will it work? Will it make the book more accessible to other readers and make her more interesting to the public? I can't say for certain, because I only have some interviews and a ten-page prologue to go by. I'm willing to pick it up and see what happens, though. Besides some...really, really, really unfortunate missteps in doing Amazing Spider-Man, I've enjoyed most of JMS' work, especially his latest stuff in DC like Brave & The Bold (where he did a WW story pre-timeline change which was pretty cool) and this newest issue of Superman.

Personally, I was always bothered by the fact that Wonder Woman, Amazon warrior, diplomat, etc was dressed in a US flag bikini. It just didn't make any sense to me. They can go on about the fact that it's traditional Themiscyran (sp?) designs all they want, but I always found it so jarring to see a Miss America outfit on Amazon warrior princess as designed by the Greek Pantheon.

As I mentioned upthread, I think those elements make perfect sense from a propaganda standpoint, if they were specifically there to try to make this superwoman herald of an all-female, matriarchal culture seem non-threatening and palatable to sexist, xenophobic, neophobic Middle America. I think she's much more effective as a "diplomat" dressed like this than if she showed up dressed in Hellenic garb or anything else that would make more "sense" for her background.

I don't know whether the comics have ever approached it that way, though.

If I remember right, the Perez run explained that the costume, and even Diana's name, was given to honor the only other outsider that crash-landed on Paradise Island--a female US pilot named Diana Trevor who helped the Amazons fight some sort of mystical baddie and was killed in the struggle.

As for that reasoning--I would imagine they had something like that during the Rucka run, where she literally was an Ambassador between the world and Paradise Island.

Though I wouldn't be surprised if they used this new timeline, the idea that she was raised on both worlds, to make the costume make sense that way.

Well, let's say *you're* an emissary from the world's only super-advanced matriarchal society, and you're showing up in the midst of WWII to tell all of mankind — and America especially — that they're Doing It Wrong. How do you keep from getting immediately vilified? Dress like their goddamn flag. It's a brilliant propaganda move.

That actually makes a lot of sense - more than any explanation I've ever seen in comics. And, sensible as it is, nothing like that is ever going to see print precisely because of the cynical view it takes.

There is, come to think of it, also the old adage that there's nobody so zealous as the convert and nobody so patriotic as the immigrant.

If I remember right, the Perez run explained that the costume, and even Diana's name, was given to honor the only other outsider that crash-landed on Paradise Island--a female US pilot named Diana Trevor who helped the Amazons fight some sort of mystical baddie and was killed in the struggle.

That actually makes a lot of sense - more than any explanation I've ever seen in comics.

Thanks!

And, sensible as it is, nothing like that is ever going to see print precisely because of the cynical view it takes.

Hmm. Point. That could be very true. I think there's lots of things about Wonder Woman that are like that — the radical feminist concepts she was created to express and the BDSM stuff that are likewise there in the design.

And yeah, I agree about the "Diana Trevor" business. That sounds like an hand-wave rather than a reason to me — same as the "it's actually ancient Amazon clothing."

I'd love to see you write a book about what you see as the subtext and roots of Wonder Woman. Hell, now that you mention it, that sounds fascinating to me too, especially if it was all turned on its ear. Go back to the guy who created the character — a psychologist living in a polyamorous relationship in the '40s, who invented the precursor to the lie-detector and thought "the only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being bound" — and put all that stuff on the surface, rather than trying to make her into something wholesome and family-friendly. Wonder Woman with a whip and stilletos.

You know, now that you mention it, I think I'd really rather read a comic about Charles Moulton/William Marston than about Wonder Woman.....